UNIQUE 'LIVE IN A FIELD' ‒ AREA 1 YOUTH CAMP

5th May 2017

It was a battle against time, the elements, unfortunate circumstances, and electrical problems, but whatever was thrown in derailing the preparations for this unique youth camp did not prevail and 'LIVE in a Field 2017' turned out to be one of the most exciting and spirit-filled Area 1 Youth camps held on 28 April-1 May.

The guest speaker was Pastor Jeremy Tremeer who ministers within the Welsh Mission. Jeremy shared stories around the theme of being on the road with Jesus bringing to life biblical encounters as well as sharing from his own life story. Jon Lewis the Youth leader for the Methodist circuit in St Austell said, "I really enjoyed the worship and prayer time and Jeremy's talks have been simple but meaningful. Loved the way the three bits fitted together." Luke Whyte the leader of Potters Bar's Templeway church was our morning devotional speaker who led out with inspirational messages to start the day. This year the desire was to focus on prayer, so Pastor Sam Gungaloo was called upon to be 'The Prayer Guy' encouraging everyone to use prayer stations with various themes such as healing, thankfulness, or forgiveness. Written prayers requests had increased from 4 last year to 103. By the end of the weekend this had increased to 150 written prayers. It was amazing to see everyone engaging in prayer in so many different ways. The camp and concerts were livestreamed by Steven Webb via Facebook reaching an audience of over 5300 views over the whole weekend.

On Sabbath, the praise team introduced a whole spectrum of new songs to the LIVE worship scene, interspersed with prayer and inspiring messages ending with an awesome lunch for everyone. The traditional walk around the Chapel Porth cliffs and down to the beach was led by Jennie Hall (who was also the camp's photographer). More praise and worship took place along the way with prayer and other words of encouragementfrom Jeremy before dinner.

On Sabbath and Sunday evening at 7:00 pm the doors opened to the public for the camp concerts called 'Gig in a Field' featuring musicians and comedians from around the UK. Saturday night featured Daniel Costin, Chloe Reynolds, Sarah Téibo, Triple O, and a late-night gig with HARAN. Sunday night featured Daniel Costin again, Tom Elliott (comedian), Tony Vino (comedian), Speak Brother, and Mr Ekow.

On Sunday there were a number of new things for the 2017 event. The first being Joel Haran sharing his story about depression in the morning worship which spoke to so many on the camp. He called his story 'The Beautiful Struggle'. Within the space of a few hours it reached over 800 views on the Facebook livestream. Lukasz posted online saying, "Love you Joel Haran you are making me sob." Jon said, "Joel's testimony struck a chord especially with the past year and my current battle with anxiety."

Workshops were also a part of Sunday's activities with Studio Haran running a ceramics workshop and Daughters of Davis running a #NotPlayingTheGame workshop (more info on this can be found at www.notplayingthegame.com). Mp shared an encouraging text at the end of camp saying "Thank you for a wonderful weekend. I really enjoyed it especially the Daughters of Davis workshop and Studio Haran, well done to you and your team."

For the first time ever there was a children's show with Tom Elliott who engaged them with jokes and fun activities to bring about a spiritual message for the youngsters.

Monday morning was an emotional heartfelt spiritually connected time of worship. This included prayer over all the requests that had been hung on the Prayer Tree and Prayer Pegs.

Sadly, it came time to say goodbye and Steven Hulbert showed appreciation to all those that helped make 'LIVE in a Field' a reality. He announced that preparations are already underway for the next one, 4-7 May 2018.

Hulbert remarked in closing "Why do I do this? I do this because I believe that events like this have

the ability to create meaningful God-centred community and friendships, that spaces are made for everyone to engage with God in some way. It is a place where art is given freedom and God is allowed to speak through it. It is a place where people come from all over to find refreshment, encouragement, inspiration, and to learn more about the Jesus we serve."